Information is often exchanged and entertainment content is often broadcast as packetized data over communication networks. Typically, an end user accesses information or entertainment content via a user terminal such as a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), and Internet-enabled mobile phone, or the like. The user terminals may be connected to the network via wireless radiofrequency (RF) connectivity or, with the exception of a mobile phone, via a cable connection. Further, the network typically includes routers and servers for routing the data packets from content providers or other network destinations to the end user through networks, such as the internet.
Organizations and enterprises are becoming more and more dependent upon such networks for day-to-day operations. Further, a significant number of organizations, such as Connexion by Boeing™, are in the business of providing such networks for end users. Because of the importance of maintaining network operations to organizations and to end-users/customers, network management tools have been developed to monitor network operations and status.
Conventional network management tools assume that a network is always “up” and communicating. This is because conventional network management tools assume that a network is physically stationary—such as being installed in a land-based facility like a building. To that end, conventional tools periodically gather information from nodes connected to the network. If a node does not answer the periodic message from the tool, then an alarm is generated.
However, a node may be a mobile platform such as an airplane, a maritime vessel, a land vehicle, or the like. In such a network, periodically the node is disconnected from the network. For example, an airplane may be in a hangar for engine maintenance or a ship may be in a drydock for hull painting. In such instances, disconnection of the node from the network is not indicative of health status of equipment within the node. Yet, conventional tools would generate an alarm in such a situation.
By their nature, mobile platform nodes physically move within and among coverage areas of a mobile network. Accordingly, managing the mobile platform nodes entails determining and using information regarding physical location of the mobile platform nodes. For example, it may be desirable to optimize bandwidth availability by assigning available bandwidth to a mobile platform when the mobile platform is in a coverage area that happens to have an excess of available bandwidth. As a further example, it may be desirable to correlate physical location of a mobile network node with alarms. That is, connectivity may be lost when a mobile network node physically moves from one RF coverage area to another RF coverage area. Moreover, it may be desirable to determine if several mobile network nodes that are generating alarms are physically located in a same RF coverage area. However, conventional network management tools do not address physical location or movement of nodes.
As a result, there is an unmet need in the art for a tool for managing a mobile network when a node, such as a mobile platform, is attached to the network but that does not necessarily generate an alarm when the node is not connected to the network.